Good Growth

1. 10.

   https://21visions.urbandesignforum.org/good-growth#10Share

   Empower New Yorkers with tools to shape greater growth in partnership with private development.

   • Challenge: The relationship between residents and new development has been incredibly contentious in recent years with the collapse of major rezonings proposals from lack of community buy-in and fear of displacement.

   • Expand the use of Special Districts across New York City, enabling community boards, residents, and civic institutions more power to shape equitable development.

     Read 4 Ideas

     • Enable neighborhoods to define their growth priorities and develop earned as-of-right zoning incentives to deliver on those needs, particularly for affordable housing, public housing upgrades, affordable retail space, schools, libraries, cultural spaces, transit improvements, parks and open space.

     • Use annual Community Needs Assessments produced by community boards to help guide city-led land use and budget decisions.

     • Provide residents with the technical expertise to shape long-term plans for neighborhood growth. (See Community Engagement & Design Excellence for more details).

     • Set up an improvement fund in each community board and enable new development to fund essential neighborhood infrastructure, supplementary to city investments.

   • Create simpler earn-as-of-right development pathways in exchange for contributions into a Neighborhood Improvement Fund.

     Read 3 Ideas

     • Expand the use of air rights to fund public housing or transit infrastructure improvements through maintenance programs or transfer impact fees, similar to the rezonings of East Midtown or Hudson Yards.

     • Tailored by a Community Needs Assessment, create new development incentives to directly construct or fund neighborhood community benefits such as public housing maintenance, transit and public realm improvements, green infrastructure, schools, public libraries, or cultural space.

     • Expand eligibility for accelerated approvals and pre-certification on development projects that deliver significant community benefits in order to create greater cost certainty for developers.

   • Enable development in wealthier districts to provide benefits in less advantaged neighborhoods.

     Read 2 Ideas

     • Explore ways in which earned-as-of-right zoning in higher density districts can directly fund or deliver improvements in less resource-rich neighborhoods connected by the same subway line. Expanding the concept of geographic “nexus” can ensure that there isn’t an overconcentration of neighborhood amenities – like quality transit infrastructure or open space – in wealthier neighborhoods.

     • Champion partnerships between real estate development and community foundations to develop charitable funds to support social services in the same and neighboring communities.

2. 11.

   https://21visions.urbandesignforum.org/good-growth#11Share

   Promote alternative private investment models that provide positive social and environmental benefits.

   • Challenge: The city's current logic of highest and best value prioritizes profit above social and environmental goals in a way that often drives community opposition.

   • Promote social impact real estate development so residents can reap the benefits of new growth.

     Read 4 Ideas

     • Drawing on Los Angeles’ Nico Echo Park, incentivize Neighborhood Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) structured as benefit corporations (B-corps) and ensure investment thresholds are accessible for community stakeholders to buy in.

     • Prioritize mission-driven development on publicly-owned land, like CDC-led affordable housing, that manages public purpose with the resourcefulness of the private sector.

     • Support a growing ecosystem for community land trusts that democratizes ownership and creates permanent housing.

     • Promote local hiring and procurement from M/WBE firms by expediting permitting and pre-approvals, and reduced permitting application fees on new energy retrofit projects to ensure community wealth building. (See Working Neighborhoods for more details).

   Case Study

   Los Angeles, CA – Nico Echo Park

3. 12.

   https://21visions.urbandesignforum.org/good-growth#12Share

   Advocate for tax equity to relieve Black and minority homeowners.

   • Challenge: The City’s archaic property tax system creates geographic and racial inequality, often causing higher tax rates on homeowners in communities of color.

   • Overhaul the property tax system to lift the burden off of New York City’s minority and working-class homeowners.

     Read 3 Ideas

     • Advance the City’s Property Tax Commission recommendations and institute to relieve struggling New Yorkers.

     • Incentivize green development by providing financial relief for energy and utility retrofits, as well as flood-zone building retrofits, for small property owners.

     • Explore legislative policies that can shift the property tax rate away from buildings and onto the use of land in order to reward property maintenance and development in vacant lots, while minimizing speculation.

Advisors

These recommendations are authored by Urban Design Forum. We thank our advisors who provided helpful insights, suggestions, and guidance throughout the working group process.